Share The Music

As Australia woke up to the highly-anticipated Splendour In The Grass line-up announcement last month, Kimbra's inclusion on the bill became somewhat overshadowed by the news later that day: boosted by a host of live television performances and an appearance in Glee, Somebody That I Used To Know had reached the number one spot on the American Billboard charts.

“I know, it's crazy!” Kimbra Johnson squeals down the phone from LA en route to Amsterdam. “It's just so awesome to hear that news. It's been a massive week for both me and Gotye, playing Saturday Night Live and then going up to Coachella, so it definitely feels like there has been a really genuine buzz around the song which is probably what helped it to head up the charts a bit.”

Not content to simply sing the duet, Johnson and Gotye (Wally De Backer) physically depict the body language of a couple mid break-up with every performance of Somebody That I Used To Know, the sentiment brought sharply into lounge rooms worldwide with their up-close Saturday Night Live appearance. “Of course the song is emotional you know and it means a lot to us. I think for that performance especially being TV we wanted to make it so that the emotion came across. I always mean it when I sing it… we feel it when we sing it,” she says.

Throwing herself into the break-up zone for four intense minutes at a time, Johnson is able to initiate the jilted lover sequence without finding it at all difficult to return to her regular self. “I guess that just comes from being able to separate the art from the person, you know? And me and Wally have worked together a long time now with the song and we've sung it together tonnes of times and I think we've come to that place where we walk on stage and we have that moment and then as soon as it's over, we go back to being friends. I think everyone understands the song obviously isn't about an actual relationship…”

Even without the outpour of widespread public confidence arising from that song, Johnson's bold and artistic performance style teamed with songwriting nous beyond her years had already set her on the path for international success, though certainly via a lengthier, more traditional trajectory. Off the back of her 14-date American support slot with Gotye, she was greeted with blocks-long queues for her own headline arrival in LA.

“I didn't expect that – it was really encouraging to play our first two shows in LA and have this incredible response,” she says humbly. “The first show was [a] KCRW [radio showcase]… which is the one that attracted a couple of thousand people down to the venue, then the second show was a ticketed show at The Troubadour and yeah that sold out in under a minute.

“Of course it feels great; like I said it's really exciting if you have that as a first response. I guess a lot of people can sometimes struggle when they have their first time coming to the US and maybe playing very small shows, whereas I felt very blessed to have such an incredible introduction to America and also to have such a loyal fanbase from the start. There were people in the crowd singing all the words to the songs; that's really encouraging,” she says of the response ahead of the May 22 US release of Vows.

Johnson's American reception has also brought about some shoulder-rubbing surprises for the kiwi. “I've kinda become friends with the guitarist of The Dillinger Escape Plan, who are one of the biggest metal bands in the world and I was a really big fan of them when I was in high school. And then he went and looked me up and said, 'I really love your music lets hang out'. So we ended up becoming really good friends in New York and talking about making music together, so that's kinda pretty random… It makes me feel very excited to know that I can now, you know, get in touch with some of my idols and people that have influenced me. You know like I ran into Florence & The Machine at Coachella and got to hang with her for a while and it was really nice; it's cool to meet all these amazing people,” she says brightly.

Back in Johnson's adopted Australian homeland, the momentum has continued with the release of new single Warrior, a collaborative project with Mark Foster (Foster The People) and A-Trak (Duck Sauce) accompanied by a slick WWF fight style clip. “It was for Converse, so they do collaborations every few months. The last one that they did was with Andre 3000 and LCD Soundsystem, so of course I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of it. I think A-Trak and Mark were the ones to select me to be the vocalist, so it was an awesome opportunity to work with two artists that I really, really love…

“It was a pretty crazy process actually. I recorded some of the vocals for that track in the airport of Hamburg in Germany and at the time A-Trak was in Paris and Mark Foster was in Los Angeles, so we were all on different continents writing it together over email. We only just got to be in the same room together the other night at Coachella. The video itself was done to green screen and we couldn't make it work to be in the same place at the same time, so it's been a very 21st century collaboration,” she admits.

Making her way back to Australia for Groovin' The Moo and her first headline shows in almost a year, Johnson's visit precedes her return to the States for the launch of Vows and an extensive support slot alongside Foster The People. “I'm excited about that one; I mean now that I'm such good friends with the band it's going to be a really fun little group. We might do some more writing together on tour and that would be fun and we're gonna get up and do Warrior together, which will be fun,” she says.

Undaunted by her in-demand status across the globe, though admitting that she might need a bit of a rest at some point, Johnson takes a moment to reflect on her path in the past year.

“I guess there's a few emotions; obviously I'm grateful and excited, but it's also been cathartic. I've spent a very long time working on this record Vows and anticipating the moment where I could come out share the music with people and really connect with people in a way that I feel I've been called to. It's been great to have that moment to share in such a sort of artistic way with Gotye as well.”